EVANESCENE

Ashley Grant

EVANESCENE

Ashley Grant

best music video picture

behind the scenes of music video

backstage ready for action

best music video picture

behind the scenes of music video

backstage ready for action

Emily

lead singer

band picture

band picture

Emily

lead singer

band picture

band picture

Biography

Evanescence’s third album is self titled for a reason: 15 years after its formation, the multi-platinum band has made the most collaborative, united album of its career. And it rocks. “Coming back together is such a beautiful and happy thing,” co-founder and lead singer Amy Lee says of making “Evanescence,” the group’s first album since 2006’s “The Open Door.” “We’d bring a song to the whole band and arrange it in a group. That’s something that really stands out against the other records. There’s a tight band at the center of everything, giving it a very tangible energy.” The cohesion is evident in every note. The album, produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Alice In Chains, Def Tones), packs a wallop with a unified vision that can only come from a group working together as a creative unit. Led by Lee’s operatic, passionate vocals, Evanescence has sold close to 25 million albums since its 2003 debut, “Fallen.” The project’s premiere single, “Bring Me To Life,” snagged the band a Grammy for best hard rock performance. Other massive hits followed, including “My Immortal,” “Going Under,” and “Call Me When You’re Sober,” establishing Evanescence as worldwide tour headliners. After a break following the conclusion of the tremendously successful tour behind “The Open Door,” the band— Lee, guitarists Terry Balsamo and Troy McLawhorn, bassist Tim McCord and drummer Will Hunt— came together to write a number of songs for “Evanescence” before heading to Nashville, where, under Raskulinecz’s tutelage, they penned another six songs.

“We were just sitting on a little stage in a circle with Nick standing there air-shredding on a drumstick. He’d say, ‘Stop. After the bridge, why don’t you do a breakdown and then go into an instrumental thing.’ He directed us,” Lee recalls. “It was really good for us to have that outside perspective.” The group then retreated to Nashville’s Blackbird Studios to record. “Nick got it. He understood what we were going for,” Lee says. “The thing he was going to amp up was the band side, which was what we wanted to focus on.”